As it attempts to halt the year’s box office slide, Hollywood is bringing out the howitzer for the holidays — the turbocharged children’s film. For the last five years, PG-13 has ruled the box office; it’s the imprimatur of the top-grossing films of the year. Now kids’ films, PG-rated and amped up with computer graphics, are trying to catch up.
The gentle fantasy of C.S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” with its snowy landscapes and talking animals, gives way to a fight-to-the-death battle between loyal Narnians and the ghoul-filled army of the White Witch.
“The line between what’s a family movie and what’s a general audience movie has been blurring for years now,” said Nina Jacobson, president of Walt Disney’s Buena Vista Motion Picture Group. “Many families went to see `Spider-Man’ together or `Lord of the Rings.’ That goes in the other direction, too — the CG-animated (computer generated) movies are also playing as general audience entertainment.”
Jacobson said that “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” is “intense” in parts and “appropriate for 7 and up, but it depends on the kid. It’s up to the parent to decide what’s right.”
“Lord of the Rings” was able to hold to PG-13 because most of the creatures killed were not human. “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” managed to keep its even child-friendlier rating by staging an enormous battle that is “99.9 percent bloodless but still very powerful,” according to Jacobson. “Nobody’s head gets chopped off.”
A sequence in which creatures catch on fire was removed to avoid the PG-13 rating that “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” got — putting it in the same rating category of strictly adult fare such as “War of the Worlds” and “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.”
In the case of the Potter and Narnia books, filmmakers argue that their first loyalty is to the text, but turning words into images might make the stories too intense for their original audience.
“When it comes to the impact of fright reaction, there is no question — images stick in the psyche much longer,” said Peter Vorderer, head of the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication’s entertainment program.
Other people suggest that the intense new films are a reflection of the tough times in which we live and can provide a safe empowerment fantasy for children. Quoting “Narnia” author Lewis, the film’s producer, Mark Johnson, said, “Since it is likely they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least hear of brave knights and heroic courage, otherwise you’re making their destiny not brighter but darker.”
By Rachel Abramowitz and Mary McNamara, Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
[Read the rest at the Chicago Tribune]